2 Chronicles 5

1 So all the work that Solomon had performed for the house of the LORD was completed. Then Solomon brought in the items his father David had dedicated—the silver, the gold, and all the furnishings—and he placed them in the treasuries of the house of God.

After Solomon’s workers had finished building the temple, Solomon put in the temple storage rooms everything that his father David had dedicated to Yahweh—all the silver and gold and all the other things that were used at the temple.

2 At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Zion, the City of David.

Then King Solomon summoned to Jerusalem all the elders of Israel, all the leaders of the tribes and of the families/clans. He wanted them to help to bring to the temple Yahweh’s Sacred Chest from Zion [Hill], where it was in [the part of the city called] ‘The City of David’.

3 So all the men of Israel came together to the king at the feast in the seventh month.

So all the leaders of Israel gathered together along with the king, during the Festival of [Living in Temporary] Shelters, in October.

4 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,

When they had all arrived, the descendants of Levi lifted up the Sacred Chest,

5 and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting with all its sacred furnishings. The Levitical priests carried them up.

and they carried it and the Sacred Tent and the sacred things that were inside it. The priests, who were also descended from Levi, carried them.

6 There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.

King Solomon and many of the other people of Israel who had gathered there walked in front of the Sacred Chest. And they sacrificed a huge amount of sheep and cattle. No one was able to count them [because there were very many].

7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, beneath the wings of the cherubim.

The priests then brought the Sacred Chest into the Most Holy Place, the inner room of the temple, and they placed it under the wings of the statues of winged creatures.

8 For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its poles.

The wings of those statues spread out over the Sacred Chest and over the poles by which it was carried.

9 The poles of the ark extended far enough that their ends were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are there to this day.

The poles were very long, with the result that they could be seen by [those who were standing] at the entrance to the Most Holy Place, but they could not be seen by anyone standing outside the temple. Those poles are still there.

10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites after they had come out of Egypt.

The only things that were inside the Sacred Chest were the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at Sinai Mountain, where Yahweh made an agreement with the Israeli people after they came out of Egypt.

11 Now all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves regardless of their divisions. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place,

Then the priests left the Holy Place. All the priests who were there, from every group, had performed the rituals to cause them to be acceptable to God.

12 all the Levitical singers—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps, and lyres, accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.

All the descendants of Levi who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their sons and their other relatives—stood on the east side of the altar. They were wearing linen clothes, and they were playing cymbals, harps, and lyres. There were 120 other priests who were blowing trumpets.

13 The trumpeters and singers joined together to praise and thank the LORD with one voice. They lifted up their voices, accompanied by trumpets, cymbals, and musical instruments, in praise to the LORD: “For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever.” And the temple, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud

The men blowing trumpets, those playing the cymbals and other musical instruments, and the singers, made music together, praising Yahweh and singing this song: “Yahweh is good [to us]; he faithfully loves us forever.” Then [suddenly] the temple was filled with a cloud.

14 so that the priests could not stand there to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

The glorious radiance of Yahweh filled the temple, with the result that the priests were not able to continue doing their work.